Collection of the Old Russian painting of the Russian Museum is one of the largest and most significant in Russia. It includes around six thousand icons. The permanent exhibition housed in the first four halls of Mikhailovsky Palace represents a part of this collection, the most valuable works of XII-XVII centuries created in the major art centers of Old Russia: Novgorod, Pskov, Vladimir, Suzdal, Moscow, and Yaroslavl.

The exposition of Russian art of XVIII century is chronologically organized and presents the main stages and trends of Russian art of this time. One part of the display is dedicated to the time of Peter I and focuses mainly on the names of Ivan Nikitin and Andrei Matveyev, the greatest portraitists and leaders of the secular Russian art of this time. Genre of portrait of the middle and second part of XVIII century is presented by such artists as Ivan Vishyakov, Alexey Antropov, Ivan Argunov, Fyodor Rokotov.

The exhibition shows masterpieces representing the variety of trends in the Russian art of the time (classicism, romantism and beginning in the second third of the XIX century realism). The works by academic school masters are also widely represented: the canvases by Karl Brullov (the famous «The Last Days of Pompeii», religious compositions and portraits of the artist’s contemporaries), historical paintings by Grigory Ugryumov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Egorov, Fyodor Bruni.

The collection of the museum comprises works of the representatives of large schools that existed in Soviet times (e.g., Leningrad school of landscape painting of the 1930s - 1950s). The art of socialist realism, showing high artistic merit, clarity of plot, a tendency for "grand style", is reflected in the paintings by A.A. Deyneka, A.N. Samokhvalov, A.A. Plastov, Yu.I. Pimenov and many other Soviet artists who continued to work during the Great Patriotic War and in the second half of the XX century.

Renovated exposition presents the creative oeuvre of such outstanding masters as M.Vrubel, V.Serov, K.Petrov-Vodkin, W.Kandinsky, K.Malevich and P.Filonov as well as the members of such art societies as "The World of Art", "Jack of Diamonds", "Donkey's Tail", "Blue Rose", "Union of Youth", "Four Arts", "Ost".

The permanent display «Decorative and Applied Arts in Russia. ХХ century» involves over four hundred items of porcelain, glass, majolica, as well as furniture pieces and textile from the Russian Museum collection. The pre-revolutionary period is shown with the works by Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Victor Borisov-Musatov, Konstantin Somov, Alexander Golovin and the artists of Imperial Porcelain and Glass factories, «Abramtsevo group» of Savva Mamontov and «Talashkino workshop» of princess Tenisheva from near the town of Smolensk.

At the end of December 1998 the Russian Museum received a donation of art from local collectors, brothers Jacob and Joseph Rzhevsky. Their donation includes unique works of painting, graphic art, sculpture and applied art.

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was an accomplished Russian poet, who wrote under the cryptonym K. R. and was an excellent translator of Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare’s works. He was the son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and grandson of emperor Nocholas I, and also a senator and a president of the Academy of Sciences. He inherited the Marble palace in 1888.

On 26 May 2005 the Mineral Study in the Stroganov Palace was opened after restoration and recreation of interiors. The study was designed by Andrei Voronikhin in 1791-92. It was considered as one of the masterpieces of Russian architecture of the 18th century.

Empire style managed to reflect the art foundations of «Alexander’s times» brightly and consistently: its items, which differ in their sizes, materials and aims, form an extraordinary stylistic unity. Imperial Porcelain and Glass factories, which employed high-class artists and craftsmen, conducted and promoted Empire style.

On the 26th of May 2005 in St Michael's (Engineers) Castle a renovated open sculpture fund was opened. 134 artworks of the end of the 19th century — the beginning of 20th century were presented. The State Russian Museum was the first in the national museum practice to create public stocks in its palaces.

The new Faces of Russia. Portrait Gallery of the Russian Museum permanent exhibition in the St. Michael’s (Engineer’s) Castle presents the evolution of the portrait in the Russian art from the so-called parsuna portraits of the beginning of the 18th century till the works of the Soviet time.

The permanent exhibition shows Russian art of the first half of the XIX-th century, the time when St.Petersburg established itself as complex and contradictory unit of the urban and social environment. It was during this period that concept «St.Petersburg Society» was formed, expressed in terms of people and social groups.

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